Former All Black Grahame Thorne says a special identification card could have prevented his disabled son from being arrested and held in cells overnight.
Mr Thorne said his 21-year-old son David Thorne, who suffered a stroke during a club rugby game last year and cannot speak, was walkinghome alone on Thursday evening from a Christchurch bar when he was arrested after he couldn't answer police questions.
"This is my problem with the whole thing. If our police people are not trained to pick out the difference between somebody who is under the influence of alcohol and somebody who actually has a problem..."
He said his son was minding his own business. "But then there's another story that he was weaving among the traffic and we don't know whether that's true."
David was carrying ID and a cell phone, but nothing to indicate his condition.
"He probably shouldn't have been drinking that much alcohol. But what do you do? Do you just lock him up and throw away the key? I want him to have as normal a life as possible."
He said he was looking at getting a card or some sort of identification for David indicating he was mute, which would hopefully help avoid misunderstandings.
"He should have something in his pocket or wallet saying I am mute. He has a form of epilepsy so we are getting a bracelet saying he has epilepsy... so maybe we could put his address or phone number on his bracelet."
Disabled Persons Assembly national president Mike Gourley said the incident was indicative of the way disabled people were often misperceived.
